Channel Superstar Hope Galley Jumps From Juniper Networks To Pure Storage

Galley, a 30-year channel veteran who has engineered multiple channel transformations, said it was “partner enthusiasm” for the Pure Storage “partner-first” channel model that convinced her to take the job as vice president of Americas partner sales for Pure Storage.

Former Juniper Networks’ vice president of Americas channel sales Hope Galley, a highly regarded channel advocate known for her close ties with partners, is taking her channel talents to storage provider Pure Storage.

Galley, a 30-year channel veteran who has engineered multiple channel transformations, said it was “partner enthusiasm” for the Pure Storage “partner-first” channel model along with the company’s never-ending innovation that convinced her to take the job as vice president of Americas partner sales for Pure Storage.

“Innovation was No. 1,” said Galley in an interview with CRN when asked why she made the move to Pure Storage. “Partner enthusiasm was right up there. Honestly, I wasn’t proactively looking for a role. Partners came to me and said, ‘Pure is looking for a channel leader. You should talk to them.’”

That partner passion for the Pure Storage channel model was a big factor given the intensely competitive channel landscape with vendors battling for the hearts, minds and technology muscle of partners, said Galley. “The partners love Pure. That’s a big thing because all of us manufacturers are trying to figure out how do we get more share and more attention of the partners,” she said. “In this case, the partners were pulling me along, cheerleading for Pure. I also knew from being around the folks that work at Pure just the passion for the company.

Galley, who made her mark in the channel over the course of 21 years at channel mainstay Cisco Systems, said she is looking forward to going on a “listening tour” during her first 100 days on the job to find out what Pure is doing well, what Pure is not doing well and how that can be fixed.

Galley, who started in her new job Monday, said Pure launched a new partner program earlier this year focused on partner profitability and ease of doing business.

“The Pure model has remained simple,” she said. “This year we launched a new partner program. It is all around partner profitability, so giving even more to the partners to be profitable. We are looking as we continue throughout the year at how do we help them be more successful and have more people certified.”

To that point, Pure Storage this week rolled out a new partner portal aimed at making it easier for partners to do business with the company. “You are going to see more of that as we go through this year and next year working with our commercial line-of-business team,” she said.

Galley said she is going to be focused on ensuring that the company does not lose that “ease of doing business” as it continues to grow. "I think some companies lose that as you look at the evolution of tech companies,” she said. “At the forefront for us is partner first, partner profitability and ease of doing business. Those are three big pillars.”

Galley will report to Pure Storage Vice President and General Manager of Americas Sales Andy Martin, who praised Galley for her ability to consistently drive “remarkable results” and build a “deep network” of partner relationships.

Galley has “experience spanning the entire Americas region and has successfully transitioned partner ecosystems from hardware-focused to subscription and service-based models,” said Martin in the email announcing her appointment. “Her comprehensive understanding of the market coupled with her success in guiding partner ecosystems through business model evolutions positions her perfectly for this critical role.”

Partners said they are excited about Galley’s ability to drive further advances in the Pure Storage channel model.

“Pure is lucky to have her,” said ePlus Director, President and CEO Mark Marron, who has worked with Galley during her tenure at both Juniper Networks and Cisco. “Hope is great. She is channel-friendly and has been great to work with over the years. I believe she will enhance and expand our partnership with Pure as we move forward.”

Sentinel Technologies Chief Innovation and Technology Officer Bob Keblusek called Galley a proven channel leader who showed her channel mettle time and time again working with Sentinel.

“It’s a great hire for Pure,” said Keblusek. “I think Hope is going to do a really nice job driving sales through the channel. She had that experience at Cisco and Juniper, who are both partner-friendly. I think she’ll bring a lot to the table at Pure, which is already very partner-friendly. I see her bringing her past experience to Pure to help accelerate more sales for data center and cloud services with the Pure platform.”

Keblusek said Pure’s product innovation continues to be best in class with an expanding portfolio including deeper cybersecurity capabilities such as behavioral analysis and ransomware protection with SafeMode Snapshots.

Sentinel, for its part, has developed a managed service leveraging Pure Storage technologies to deliver an air-gapped data center to recover data in a ransomware scenario for critical industries like health care. “We have designed some pretty interesting solutions around Pure technologies in those [ransomware] scenarios,” he said.

Sentinel Co-President and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Brian Osborne praised Galley as a “good listener” and strong channel advocate who “cares” about partners. “Hope can definitely inject some partner enthusiasm and some momentum back into the business,” he said. “She is very, very well respected by all the folks in the channel.”

Brian Swisher, executive vice president of Everything as a Service for Advizex, a Fulcrum IT Partners company, said it is no coincidence that both Pure Storage CEO Charles Giancarlo and Galley cut their teeth at Cisco.

“Charlie Giancarlo recognizes talent,” he said of the move to bring Galley on board. “Hope exhibited her strong leadership during her time at Cisco. Pure is a strong channel-led organization that is laser-focused on channel profitability. Hope is going to bring all the successes she has had in the channel to continue to evolve the Pure channel program in ways that we haven’t seen before.”

Swisher said Pure has been a strong Everything-as-a-Service partner with Advizex. “Our customers are looking for opportunities to change up their procurement models to have maximum flexibility in their product and services acquisition strategies,” he said. “We’ve seen that come to the fore with the Pure Evergreen//One as-a-service offering. With our infrastructure managed services and Evergreen//One, we are able to offer customers a complete as-a-service offering.”

Swisher said Advizex is seeing exponential growth in its Everything-as-a-Service offerings with sales up in the first quarter 70 percent and an Everything-as-a-Service sales pipeline of $100 million. “Companies like Pure are allowing us to drive as-a-service adoption with differentiated offerings,” he said.

Galley, for her part, pledged that Pure Storage will continue to be a “partner-first” company. “We’re going to continue to make sure from the sales reps all the way up through the chain that partners are set for success,” she said. “We are not going to get away from that. We are going to really lean into it and we are going to lean into it not only from a sales perspective but with our technical teams and so forth. It’s an exciting time to be at Pure, and it’s an exciting time to be a Pure partner. If you’re not a Pure partner, come aboard. Call me. We want you all.”